Article by Carmen New
Landscape Architecture Students Participate in Cultural Landscape Inventory for the Amache National Historic Site
Once a World War II internment camp for Japanese Americans, the Amache National Historic Site in Granada, Colorado is the focus of a three-year Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) project funded by a National Park Service grant. Assistant Professor Louise Bordelon, principal investigator and Professor and Co-Dean Ann Komara, co-investigator, are working with landscape architecture students to perform the CLI of the site.
“Students are preparing a Cultural Landscape Inventory, a professional report that maps and records site features and conditions,” Bordelon said. “In doing so, they gain hands-on experience typically reserved for landscape architecture firms, from report writing, drone photography, and GIS mapping, to field sketching and observation. The project not only honors the history of those forcibly relocated to Amache but also offers students a powerful entry point into landscape preservation and public history.”
Landscape as Archive: Amache National Historic Site
From 1942 through the end of World War II, more than 7,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast of America were incarcerated at what was known as “Camp Amache.” Students in Bordelon’s Spring Landscape Architecture elective, “Landscape as Archive: Amache National Historic Site,” are learning about the history of the relocation center and how the incarcerated people created gardens to create places of respite, grow vegetables, and express their cultural traditions through traditional Japanese design elements.
In March, students traveled to the Amache site to conduct fieldwork to document and inventory the cultural landscape features. The work completed in this course will contribute to the Cultural Landscape Inventory for the National Park Service. View photos of the site visit captured by Lecturer and Director of CAP’s Visual Resource Center Jesse Kuroiwa.
“Cultural Landscape Inventories are often contracted to landscape architecture firms that focus on cultural landscapes,” Bordelon said. “Student participation in this elective should equip them with skills directly transferable to the workplace
Ongoing Research and Creative Work for the Amache National Historic Site
CU Denver continues to connect with the Amache National Historic Site in support of uncovering its history and telling the story through channels uniquely available to the university.
Assistant Professor Leyuan Li also received a grant from the National Park Service that is currently supporting his undergraduate architecture studio titled, “The Suppressed Interior: Reimagining Amache.” In collaboration with Linnaea Stuart from Arch11, Li’s studio is using architecture as a medium to investigate propositions and provocations that reimagine the future of the Amache Museum and its local context. More specifically, the studio is exploring the interior outward, unearthing underestimated design programs and underrepresented identities related to the interior.
The Joseph H. McClelland Collection at the Auraria Library features a collection of historical photographs by Joseph McClelland, the Reports Officer who was responsible for documenting the activities at Camp Amache, providing personal perspectives on the Granada War Relocation Center. Visit the Auraria Library Collection.
Landscape Architecture Students Participate in Cultural Landscape Inventory for the Amache National Historic Site was first published on the University of Colorado Denver – College of Architecture and Planning website.
Images Credit: Courtesy of the University of Colorado Denver
